Back to Fields End with friends

Another day at Fields End, with my former editor of Sea Angler Mel Russ. We had promised ourselves a day out together two years ago, and now was the perfect opportunity. One of his mates, Brian, also came with us. Covid rules were in place - separate cars, correct money collected on the bank, and two metres apart.

The hot weather had brought at least a dozen others out. The water had
 a good tinge of colour and a light breeze made for a pleasant day.

We had to walk to the other side of the Pool, because the near pegs were taken. Luckily there was a cool breeze (there always is at Fields End – it’s why windmills were built there) otherwise we would have roasted. I had rods with me but stuck on a pole all day as there were lots of fish moving in the margins – I have never seen so many on any water. The conditions must have really suited them.

I try several elastics

I messed about with various methods – shallow, on the bottom at five metres, and in the margins, and kept changing my elastics. The opinion of most top matchmen is that lighter elastics – around 8 – are best for playing carp. In fact I found that on a light elastic once I put the pole tip under the surface to let the fish calm down and drift back towards me, some came off. Presumably the hook fell out as the elastic retracted. I lost about five like that.

Mel brings a fish to net on a feeder...

A change to Middy white (22-24), purple Hydro, Preston 13 Hollo or Red Hydro saw me not lose any. It must be that you need to strip back quickly if losing a lighter elastic, to keep pressure on the fish. But when I did that it felt so harsh. Anyway, the result was that I was landing fish more quickly on the heavier stuff than on the light. So it was a good exercise.

Shallow, the fish were all around 2 lb to 3 lb, and the 13 Hollo was great for this. They fought harder than the bigger fish which came to corn and cat meat in the margins. Here I often had five-pounders in the net within 30 seconds, playing them gently, keeping the pole tip well down, and letting them drift on the surface slowly towards the landing net.

...a carp of about 3 lb, which fought like a tiger (a small one).

Delicate bites from good fish

These better fish fed very delicately, in only 14 inches of water. I could see them go down towards the bait, and obviously most were just sucking the bait in, and not registering the bite on the float for several seconds. A slight lift if I thought the fish might have taken the bait often produced a fish on the end. Perhaps they will become more edgy later in the year as the water sees more angling pressure. Then, I would expect them to inspect the bait, circle away, and then make a mad dash for it, giving a proper smash bite.

Brian enjoyed his first visit to this fishery.

Meanwhile Mel was fishing a feeder with maggot or corn, and I think he finished with about 20 fish around 2 lb to 3 lb. Anyway he said he’d had a good day. Brian probably had a few more – I didn’t think to ask, as I was so knackered when I packed up. I had around 70 fish for over 200 lb. Of course it doesn’t always fish like that and we hit it just right. Other anglers seemed to also be catching odd fish.

        The very first picture of my shiny new balls.       

        

Feeding

I found that heavy feeding – half a handful at a time, brought fish in, then half-a-dozen over the top, fed by hand, kept the shallow-feeding fish there. A 4mm banded pellet seemed better than the 6mm.

So that has given me confidence to fish banded pellet rather than the expanders I usually rely on. Also I have set a rig up specifically for fishing my special method with corn, as well as fine-tuning the cat meat rig.

My first club match, observing the strict rules, looks like being on Sunday, June 7 on Six Islands at Decoy. It’s possible my trolley will have the motor mended by then (yippee) and I will be displaying my new balls for the draw at Fenland Rods.

A great day back on the bank at Fields End

So the complete lockdown had been relaxed, and a trip to Fields End, Doddington, would give me my first taste of fishing for ten weeks. It's an irrigation reservoir holding 28 pegs , with lodges and caravan sites, but none of these are operational at the moment. There were about five anglers there when we arrived.

John Smith and his son travelled there separately, and we started fishing at about 9.30. The forecast was for hot weather, with possibly some rain (only a few spots hit us) but luckily there was a bit of a breeze.

We picked the first three platforms, with the wind over our backs, and I started on a pellet waggler, a method I have not fished for some time, at about 35 yards, a third of the way across. Four carp around 2-3 lb came quickly, then a lull, and then a chub about 3 lb. The wind was easing off, and the surface became almost calm, and bites dropped away. I was clicking the number of fish, rather than the weight.

Meanwhile John had somebetter fish down the side, so with ten fish under my belt I put up a pole and fished banded pellet on four sections. Every time the wind picked up I had a fish or two, and these were a bit bigger, around 3 lb-plus. Paul in the first peg was, like his Dad, on a waggler, and I could see him landing fish; an angler on my right, who was fishing the Method, was also catching slowly but steadily.

This was one of John's first fish - a good 5 lb.

Every time the wind put a ripple on the water I picked up the pellet waggler and would take three or four carp or chub until the wind either died or changed direction, when the fish would disappear. So it was back to the pole, and with shapes moving under the surface near the edge, I put on a piece of cat meat. The result was roach but nothing else.

So back to the pellet waggler for a fish or two until the wind changed - every time that happend the fish disappeared. 

An unusual find

At one point, when the fish were coming quickly, I changed from a brown 6mm pellet on the band, while feeding 6mm, to a green 8mm on the band. To my surprise  I never had a take. Ten minutes later I changed back and had fish straight away. That’s something I will have to bear in mind for all methods, not just when fishing the pellet waggler.

Then the wind died and then I tried inside again, having another look on cat meat.  Here I found better fish now willing to feed, and two little tricks brought a really good spell. 

The two tricks.

I could see fish coming in to feed in the margins whenever I put feed in, and I could often see them coming for the hook bait as it sank, only to see then veer away. If I left it, the odd fish took it, but I had a lot of line bites. The water here was less than two feet deep, so I tried fishing a foot over depth, so the line was not vertical above the bait. This brought a good run of carp around 5 lb.

Another trick was to put in my bait first, so it was on the bottom, wait for 30 seconds, and then feed over the top with a little cat meat. The fish seemed to take the bait much more confidently when it was static than when it was moving – possibly they thought it was bait left over from the last feed.

Anyway it was a trick to store up for the future, because normally I feed first.

Lots of suncream and a brimmed hat to
keep the sun off my face. It was hot, but
a cool breeze mad it comfortable.

A really good run

Suddenly the wind got up quite strong and started blowing straight into our faces, and from that moment I concentrated on the pole. Paul left at 2 pm with 135 lb on his clicker, and John and I packed up about 90 minutes later. He estimated 95 lb, mainly on paste, but thanks to a great run in that last hour – at one time I landed fish of 10 lb, 10 lb, 8 lb and 5 lb one after the other in probably only 12 minutes – I reckoned I had had 200 lb. 

That consisted of 20-plus on the pellet waggler at 2 lb 8 oz average, and 40  on the pole, mainly on meat but also on banded pellet and corn,  averaging at least 4 lb.

I foulhooked just two all day, and lost only three, which I thought was pretty good.

Goodness knows when I will be happy fishing matches – probably not until next summer unless a vaccine is produced. But the occasional pleasure outing like this will help fill the void. I’m still wondering about getting a lighter box like the Matrix P25, because lifting the Octbox onto my trolley, even lifting the draws first then the footplate, really knocks me up.In fact if there hadn't been a toilet on site I would have had a severe problem packing up.

The cancer

My next consultation with the oncologist is early June, having already been told that the expected CT scan of my lungs has been suspended while the virus is taking up places at Addenbrookes. But they are not giving me a problem...yet. I'm also hoping the consultant may tell me I can stop the hormone treatment on my prostate cancer, as it's made me really weak But not too weak to pick up a landing net!